LOS ANGELES – Phil Jackson, who would have given his left limb to coach the Knicks in the 1980s, belittled his former club again berfore yesterday’s game.

Asked if the Knicks should be favored to come out of the East, Big Chief Triange responded, “They’d have to beat Indiana on their homecourt. And they have to hope Dick Bavetta calls a four-point play for them.”

The dig was the Larry Johnson miracle 4-point play that won Game 3 in the Eastern Conference finals vs. Indiana. When hearing of Jackson ‘s remark, Van Gundy pointed out, “Well, he got the wrong official.”

The call was actually made by Jess Kersey. Van Gundy pretended not to be insulted by the remark.

“I’ll be honest with you,” Van Gundy said. “You need a little bit of good fortune. Being good sometimes is not good enough. You got to be good enough and have good fortune. That’s for any team. Not just us. And for Indiana, they had good fortune on a call in Game 2 of the series on the charge call on Marcus [Camby].

“Everyone needs good fortune. But they need less. They have less margin for error. They’re rarely in close games. There’s no one close. The later Bulls teams were close to them.”

The Knicks managed not to hold one single practice during their grueling nine-day, five-game road trip. The biggest surprise came when Van Gundy postponed practice in L.A. Saturday. Van Gundy said he did it to keep up their energy level.

“You try to go by your gut, I thought that was best for this trip,” Van Gundy said. Van Gundy consulted with Larry Johnson and Patrick Ewing.

“They’re the guys most affected by fatigue,” Van Gundy said.

On Thursday, Garden prez Dave Checketts said Van Gundy deserved Coach of the Year, guiding the club through myriad injuries. When asked about Checketts’ remark, Van Gundy said “It was nice of him but I just want to be the team of the year. That’s all. If we can be team of the year, then everything will be fine. A lot of guys every year do a great job with their team.”

Van Gundy sounded like he thought the challenge for Florida, coached by former player Billy Donovan, might to be too tough.

“It’s going to be hard. Michigan State is very good. Hopefully they can stay around and win it at the end,” he said.

Donovan played for Providence, where Van Gundy was a grad assistant.

On the team’s energy level at the end of the trip, Van Gundy said, “That should not be a problem. If you were playing the last game of the trip, the Clippers here, like we did in November, we lacked energy. That’s one thing. Not when you’re playing this team.”